Freedom
by Baka Shojo
Summary: [In answer to Crimson Skies's Snapshot challenge] NO PAIRINGS Dark is free. No one can stop him from feeling this. Happy Lunar New Year!


Another heist, another conquest completed.

Another meaningless endeavor in his existence finished.

He will have to start all over again.

The usual gentle breeze of the city wildly blew into him, causing him to shiver. His dark, attractive clothing clung to his skin, but that didn't distract him. The wind's loud howls were insignificant to him. He could only hear the powerful beat of the wings on his back and the lapping waves down on the beach. He couldn't hear anything else, nor did he care to.

The only things that he paid any attention to were the limitless skies around him and With. But even With couldn't draw his attention away from all those blinking, some wavering, some firm, stars above him. In every direction he looked, the stars were there, neutral. He knows stars are neutral. They don't offer hope, nor do they mock anyone. And for that, he was grateful. They were the single companions he will allow to be with him. They will never offer any judgment or preferences. They were just there. Always. Forever. Eternally. Watching.

The darkness behind the stars was meaningless as well. They had nothing. They wanted nothing. The darkness filled with emptiness and nothingness and everything and everyone all at once. All sensations were numbed and magnified.

The moon, round and pale and magnificent, shone with an eerie striking glow. Dark could see the path laid out on the sea, beckoning him to cross great bodies of water, where no sense of duty or justice will follow him. But Dark didn't change directions. Dark had no direction to begin with. _Freedom_ had no path or direction.

He closed his eyes and took in deep breaths, filled with the smell of the sea (salty, fresh) and the smell of the city (gaseous, artificial). Without having him tell With, the wings on his back expanded and beat down heavily, even more so than before.

Dark opened his eyes and spread his arms out, as if trying to swallow the entire earth in an embrace. Vaguely, his ears picked up the honks of cars, music spilling out of bars, and indistinguishable talk. But he paid them no mind.

His body tilted sideways and he let his body spin out of control. His heart pounded hardly in his chest, beating wildly in fear. But Dark couldn't share that same fear. He felt free, chainless, and boundless. Dark felt free. However much his heart beat, Dark didn't care, the twirl in him spinning faster and faster.

His arms shook tiredly from being held up high for too long, but Dark didn't drop them. With moaned dizzily behind him and Dark ignored that, too. The stolen Hikari artwork on his back felt like nothing. Every sensation was being numbed.

All sensation except for the joyous revelation of being free and flying like a bird. Or maybe, dancing with nature, without a care, free to do anything. To twist and turn heedlessly and wildly. _Freely_.

Dark didn't care for anything at that moment. No, he wouldn't care. He couldn't. All that mattered to him was the freedom. The lack of boundaries. The silence of everything unimportant.

Dark couldn't even tell anyone if he felt anything at all in that single, one moment.

Did he feel happy?

Did he feel sad?

Was he lonely?

He had no answer to those questions. But that didn't bother him. He didn't care.

Dark closed his eyes again as he willed his body to stop spinning. To stop that gravity-defying, logic-lost dance he was in. To stop the one thing that kept him going. To stop that freedom he would die for.

His heart slowly slid back into a slower beat, if not a bit quicker one than usual. But Dark didn't pay attention.

Dark's body dipped low. It soared high. It flew in circles.

It did all kinds of things, indescribable things.

Adjectives, words, they had no meaning then.

Bliss? Anger? They had no meaning, no point. No reason to exist.

Maybe, at another time, Dark would call this melancholy. But not right now.

Right now, liberty was all Dark needed, all he wanted.

Liberty and freedom were what Dark required for survival.

Not food. Not shelter. Not love.

Just _freedom_.

Even Daisuke couldn't help but feel this excitable feeling.

From the back of Dark's mind, Daisuke could see everything Dark saw, could hear everything Dark heard, and Daisuke felt everything Dark _felt_.

And it could only be categorized as amazing. Amazingly complicated. Amazingly simple. Profound and glorious. All and everything. Or maybe nothing. Nothing to the last molecule.

Amazingly indescribable.

The silence brought so many understandings to Daisuke. And yet, so many questions arose in his mind about Dark. But he didn't voice them. Daisuke felt an admiration for Dark that he will never admit to, because he knows it isn't really admiration. In reality, Daisuke knows it's only understand and acceptance, because Daisuke views Dark as a curse in his bloodline. But for now, just let him deceive himself. Just let him believe he's a nice, normal boy.

And for this single moment, while Dark was free as a bird, flying, Daisuke wouldn't nag him. Even if he knew this would not last, even if he knows this will happen each and every time Dark flies, Daisuke will let him go. Daisuke will always let him go.

Because he's selfish.

Because Dark has been trapped in a curse for so long.

Because Dark is no longer acting.

Because for him, this was the first time that he was free, too.

Daisuke closed his own eyes, not intruding on Dark's moment. He had no right to. He was inferior. He was _nothing_ compared to **freedom**.

And, because… Daisuke understands what Dark is doing. He's…

Flying. Flying free like a bird.

And Dark was finally in peace.

But…

What is peace?

Nothing.

_Everything._

**Nothing.**

Everything.

What is **_freedom_**?

Dark has no answer.

But he doesn't _care_.

Because he's _free._

Dark is free.


End file.
